Things Are Afoot

It seemed that even a bit of a drop in temperature wasn't going to deter people from turning up this weekend, and I did all three walks, beginning with the usual Trafalgar Square to St Paul's jaunt which takes us through a rather festive looking Covent Garden.

Covent Garden

Nestling in one corner of Covent Garden is the tardis like Royal Opera House. An art work by Yinka Shonibare was recently installed on the side of the building, showing a ballerina, rather like a giant version of the kind you might expect to pop out of an old music box. Her head is a hand made globe, made by ace globe makers Bellerby & Co and jutting out horizontally inside an orb, the plan is that the ballerina twirls majestically on the hour. On Saturday however, it seems that the 'Globe Head Ballerina' had endured an unfortunate accident, and lost a couple of limbs and was clunking and bashing around less majestically than usual, high up above intrigued on lookers. Hopefully she'll get fixed and be back to her graceful best soon.

'Globe Head Ballerina' by Yinka Shonibare

In the afternoon, 13 people joined me for the walk from St Paul's cathedral to Monument via Bankside and Borough. It was a heady international mix hailing from Holland, the States, Bombay, Liverpool and the Isle of Wight to name a few. Ali who had done 2 walks with me previously was there to complete 'the trilogy' and Pete was on his second walk with me. Here they are standing in front of the remains of the 12th century Winchester Palace, once the London residence of the Bishop of Winchester. The 'Rose Window' which adorns the western wall of the great hall can be seen above them.

Winchester Palace - Borough

On Sunday, another healthy sized group came along for my east London walk including Glen and Norma who despite doing a walk with me a few weeks ago in torrential rain, came back for another. Here they all are on our way through Bunhill Fields Cemetery, home to Daniel Defoe and William Blake and stands on the other side of City Road from Wesley's Chapel, built in 1778.